Research Support

The Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine at UCSF has had a continuously funded NIH training grant, or “T32”, to support fellows for over 40 years. The T32 provides a great opportunity for fellows to pursue the full-time research training necessary to launch their academic careers. This grant pays fellows’ salaries as well as some coursework (e.g. Master’s degrees) and educational travel. Individuals can receive up to 3 years of funding on the T32. Fellows will typically begin research during the second year of fellowship; therefore, the T32 can support fellows, as needed beyond the ACGME fellowship time, i.e. through the 4^th or 5^th year after starting fellowship. During the 4^th and 5^th years, graduate fellows are appointed as Clinical Instructors in the division independent of their funding mechanism. 

After clinical training at UCSF, fellows in the program are supported by a variety of mechanisms. The details of the sources of salary support for each individual will be determined by each fellow’s mentors and division leadership based on the specifics of their career path. Support on the T32 is the typical pathway UCSF fellows will follow. This mechanism provides the greatest flexibility for fellows as they pursue their research training. Fellowship applicants should be aware that recipients of NIH T32 grant funding at UCSF or any other fellowship program are required by the NIH to engage in academic or service pursuits for one month for each month of support received, to a maximum of 12 months, beginning after the first year of support (see figure below). If a fellow is supported by the T32 until the end of the 3^rd year of fellowship, they will need to remain engaged in academic medicine or health-related service for an additional 6-12 months; for example, they may work as a research fellow or a faculty member at UCSF or elsewhere. This link provides more details about this NIH program: 

Note that “payback” can be concurrent with training and begins on month 13 of T32 support, continuing until month 24 of support on the T32. The third year of T32 support is without further obligation. Example: If a fellow starts on the T32 in January of ACGME year 2 of fellowship, the payback period would begin in January of the third year and continue until the following January (that is six months beyond the end of ACGME training). The fellow may remain supported by the T32 for a total of 3 years and thereby concurrently fulfill the payback while continuing training.  Example 2: If a fellow starts on the T32 in July (the beginning) of the third ACGME year, payback would begin at the end of the third ACGME year and continue for 1 year beyond ACGME training. The vast majority of fellows fulfill their requirement by remaining research fellows/clinical instructors for a fourth year, but this is not the only option. Engagement in service/academic medicine is relatively broadly defined by NIH and includes engaging in health-related research, health-related teaching, research training, and/or health-related activities that averages at least 20 hours per week based on a full work year. 

Applicants who are not willing to make a 6-12 month, half-time commitment to academic medicine or health service beyond fellowship should consider programs other than UCSF. Talk with our program director or fellowship leadership team about any questions you might have about how fellows are supported at UCSF

Example Schedule. The first 18 months of the program are dedicated to clinical training in pulmonary and critical care medicine (PCCM). Year two emphasizes critical care medicine. Clinics continue through the ACGME period of the program (Year 1-3). In this example, T32-supported research begins in January of year 2. Note that January of year 3 through January of year 4 is the T32 payback period, which extends beyond the ACGME portion of the training. Some fellows do CCM in the second half of year 2 and begin support on the T32 in July at the start of year 3. Their research in the first half of year 2 is supported by other mechanisms.    

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